In bizarre robbery, 60-feet-long steel bridge stolen in Bihar
Category: World News
Via: buzz-of-the-orient • 2 years ago • 13 commentsBy: Source: PTI - Edited By: Hemant Waje
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In bizarre robbery, 60-feet-long steel bridge stolen in Bihar
A 60-feet-long steel bridge was dismantled and stolen by a group of men posing as government officers in Bihar's Rohtas district, police said on Saturday.
The bridge, weighing 500 tons, was built over the Arrah canal in Amiyawar village in Nasriganj police station area in 1972, they said.
A group of men, posing as officers of the Irrigation Department, dismantled the defunct bridge with the help of gas-cutters and earthmovers over three days, police said.
By the time the locals realised what was happening and informed the police, they had fled with the scrap, said Subhash Kumar, the Station House Officer of Nasriganj police station.
"It appears that the whole operation was executed with the help of unwitting local officials of the Irrigation Department," he said.
A case was registered and a hunt was on to nab those behind the incident, Kumar said.
Scrap dealers in the district have been alerted about the incident, he said.
"The bridge was too old and declared dangerous some time back. A new concrete bridge was constructed adjacent to the old one, and that is currently used by the locals," said Mantu Singh, a resident of the Amiyawar village.
Taking a dig at the government over the incident, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav said the thieves were inspired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and BJP leaders.
"If BJP and Nitish Kumar can steal the government of Bihar, then what is a bridge?" he said, apparently referring to Kumar's Janata Dal-United severing ties with the Rashtriya Janata Dal to form a government with BJP in the state in 2017.
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Although such a theft is somewhat unusual, it is not without fairly recent precedent. A bridge was stolen in Russia in 2019, and a pedestrian bridge was stolen in Akron, Ohio, in 2020.
The price of scrap iron is on the rise and the current rate would make 500 tons worth approximately $100,000.00 US unless they could reduce it down to heavy melt, then it would be another half as much more, but it doesn't seem the amount of manpower, fuel, and equipment would make it worth while and on top of that how do you sell that much scrap without alerting the authorities.
A little at a time?
"I told you we could take this old bridge before anybody would notice" the leader of the thief gang said laughingly
"If we succeed, let's do the Brooklyn Bridge next", they answered seriously.
In the USA the government will let an old bridge rust and 90% of its paint fall into the river. Then when they finally decide to rip it down, they will spend millions trying to prevent that last 10% of the paint from falling into the river even as 26 other bridges rust away and lose their paint on the same river.
I suppose Simon and Garfunkle could then sing A Troubled Bridge Over Water.
Seems like a lot of work for not that much money. They wouldn't get more than $80,000 for the scrap and probably quite a bit less than that.
I read an article a few years ago about India and there were some photos of a man sweeping up paint chips and crushing them into a powder so he could sell it to be reused as pigment in new paint. Hours of work for Pennies.
Well the East Indians are pretty ingenious..
I watched a video online showing a guy in India rebuilding car batteries. He drained it on the ground then used a hot knife to separate the top from the bottom case and pulled all the lead guts out and replaced them with new plates. he then soldered them together glued the top back on then used a mold to pour new posts where the lead taps come through the case top. This is what he did for a living squatting in the dirt handling poison while his kids played in the same yard he was dumping acid filled with degraded lead.
For a lot of people in those countries, $80,000 is a lot of money. Did you ever watch The Magnificent Seven (1960)? If so, so you remember the scene where Chris (Yul Brynner) and Vin (Steve McQueen) go to recruit Charles Bronson? He had earned $600 and $700 on previous jobs, was now splitting wood to earn his meals and a bed. He asked how much the pay would be and was told $20. He answered "Right now, $20 is a lot of money."
For a lot of them $800 is a lot, 80,000 is like the lottery jackpot.